Evidence of meeting #2 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was toyota.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Head, Defect Investigations, Defect Investigations and Recalls, Department of Transport
We are looking at each public complaint that comes forward to try to better understand that complaint.
NDP
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
Just in terms of your department, how much have you staffed up over the past decade?
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security Group, Department of Transport
In which, the road safety division?
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
The road safety division. Have you staffed up in the last decade?
Head, Defect Investigations, Defect Investigations and Recalls, Department of Transport
With respect to road safety, I really couldn't comment on all of road safety, because there are about 16 different divisions.
Head, Defect Investigations, Defect Investigations and Recalls, Department of Transport
With respect to defect investigation, it has been the same.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
So it's the same. You've gone from just over 600 complaints to 1,200 last year and it looks like you're going to hit 1,600 this year. I note that the majority of the complaint increases are among different manufacturers other than the main four, so the complexity of your complaints is going up. The sources of your complaints are spread over a wider automotive manufacturing sector and yet you've the same amount of staff that you had when you were doing 600.
Are you able to provide the same level of service today that you were doing a decade ago, when you only had half the complaints, and those complaints were focused around three or four manufacturers?
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security Group, Department of Transport
As I previously indicated, we feel we're fulfilling our obligations under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act with the resources we have. If we see that the level of complaints is rising appreciably, there will be courses for us to follow to pursue the--
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Western Arctic, NT
So you were over-staffed before? You were over-staffed a decade ago and now you're just getting to a point where your staff is fully employed? Is that the case? Is that what you're saying?
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security Group, Department of Transport
No, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is we manage based on risk and we attempt to put our resources to the best use we possibly can to ensure the safety of Canadians.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Firstly, Mr. Masse and Mr. Volpe, after the documents have gone through the ATIP, my understanding is the minister wants to provide all of the documents that you request that are directly appropriate to this, and obviously he will.
I know, gentlemen, that the minister's office has actually directed you to help the family in British Columbia get to the bottom of what happened, and actually you've been in direct communication with that family as well. To your knowledge, is that correct?
Head, Defect Investigations, Defect Investigations and Recalls, Department of Transport
That's correct. We did get the word from the minister's office late yesterday afternoon. Personally, from my residence last evening I actually called our field investigation team; fortunately, they're three hours behind us in B.C. The investigation team has since spoken to the complainant, who is ex-police, retired police. He has some concerns and he still doesn't have the full answers. It was a U.S. crash, a very severe crash, and he'd like us to get more answers. We're going to do as much as we can to assist him.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Excellent.
I really appreciate the technical briefing we had. I know some members of this committee actually went: Mr. Tweed, Mr. Maloway, and Mr. Gaudet showed up. There were some MPs who actually attended. I was quite impressed. You had six pedal mechanisms out there that you were working on.
My understanding is that today you are continuing to investigate the sticky pedal issue with Toyota. Is that correct?
Head, Defect Investigations, Defect Investigations and Recalls, Department of Transport
That's correct.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Okay. And you're going to continue to investigate that until you get to the bottom of that, is that correct?
Head, Defect Investigations, Defect Investigations and Recalls, Department of Transport
We are continuing the investigation.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Would you be prepared to provide information to the committee when you decide to stop that investigation, when you come to a conclusion on that?
Head, Defect Investigations, Defect Investigations and Recalls, Department of Transport
We definitely will be more than happy to give you an update.
Just to clarify, our investigations never stop. We continue monitoring what's happening.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Great.
Just to carry on with what Mr. Bevington says, I notice 2004 was actually a record year for complaints.
Head, Defect Investigations, Defect Investigations and Recalls, Department of Transport
No, I just want to correct you on that. That's probably the last table you're looking at. That's recalls, population of recalled vehicles, not necessarily complaints.
Conservative
Head, Defect Investigations, Defect Investigations and Recalls, Department of Transport
No, they don't. You have to keep in mind that the manufacturer has an obligation to do those recalls. Those recalls are not necessarily influenced by Transport Canada defect investigations. It is a floating number in the sense that you never know how large that recall is going to be. There's a chance the recall could be for one vehicle--we have seen that--or it could be for, in the Toyota case, 400,000 vehicles.
